Thank you for everyone who has waited patiently for this fanfiction. I'm hoping this chapter is worth the wait. As always, thank you so much for the reviews and favorites. This has been a truly inspiring journey writing this story and I only hope it continues. :)

Also, I'm not sure what exactly is going on with the chapters. Chapter 6 totally disappeared. I'm not sure how that happened by oh well. Let's call this chapter number 21 for less confusion.

Chapter 21

It wasn't until my shirt and bra were lying in a pile on the garage floor along with Dimitri's shirt, when I heard the garage door open.

"Dimitri." I breathed into his neck as he fondled my breast and nuzzled the spot underneath my right ear that he knew made me weak in the knees.

"Dimitri! Stop!" I said in alarm as Paul came into view from behind Dimitri in the garage doorway.

"What?" Dimitri ask me concerned, turning around in the direction I was looking.

"I—I didn't mean to interrupt—Nana sent me in here to see what the holdup was—the quicker you get the 'Gloo be Gone' on the wall the faster the stickers will come off, she says." Paul mumbled over his words as he took the scene in before him.

I could imagine what he saw. Dimitri standing in front of me shirtless and me taking cover behind him equally shirtless as half our cloths lay in a pile on the floor between our bodies.

"So, I told you and now I will go." Paul continued his Russian accent even more pronounced do to his nervousness as he turned around to leave.

"Why didn't you stop him? I asked Dimitri smacking him in the arm as I bent over to retrieve my bra and shirt from the floor.

"He won't tell anyone." Dimitri said turning back around to face me. "At least I hope not…"

"Oh my—your grandmother is going to kill us—I mean me." I said strapping my bra on as fast as possible.

Looking at me for a few seconds as he thought about the next set of actions he finally said, "I'll take care of it." Then, he swooped down, grabbing his shirt and walked out the door after Paul.

Looking up at the ceiling, I cursed Dimitri's grandmother. If it wasn't so against the rules, then this situation would have never happened. Dimitri and I never acted this way before. Okay, maybe I was a bit more acceptable toward some PDA but Dimitri would have never allowed this situation to advance as much as it did. We were both in a state of withdrawal and I only hope it doesn't get much worse.

As If I was setting out a electromagnetic signal for her, I heard a grunt in the direction of the doorway to look up and find Yeva staring back at me.

Great, I thought to myself as I looked around for a weapon to use in my defense. The lady was scary and I wasn't above claiming self-defense for survival.

Instead of giving me any trouble, she simply walked, or rather hovered as I see it, over to the counter not breaking eye contact with me as she grabbed the 'Gloo be Gone.' Finally breaking eye contact with me, she turned around and headed back toward the door.

She knows I was seducing Dimitri in here and now she wants to kill me, I thought to myself as I looked down to realize I was still standing in my bra.

"Awesome." I whispered to myself while I pulled my shirt over my head and processed out the door to find Dimitri and figure out the damage report.

When I couldn't find Dimitri in the house, I decided to look outside incase he took Paul for a walk.

To my surprise, as I was putting my coat on, the doorbell rang. Not sure if I should answer it or wait until someone in the household did, in case there was some Russian rule about that or something, I stood there until the doorbell rang again.

"Can someone get that?" I heard Olena call from upstairs.

"I will!" I called back opening the front door.

To my surprise, the person staring back at me was Maria. The lady who helped me cope with Dimitri's disappearance after the whole Strigoi fiasco.

"Maria?" I ask partly shocked as I opened the screen door to let her in.

"No." She said shaking her head when I gestured her to come into the house. "We need to talk elsewhere."

"Okay." I said a little weirded out at her being all mysterious all of a sudden. "

"Um—" She paused looking unto the house, "Can we talk —at my hotel alone?"

"Can we go for a walk?" I asked stepping outside. "

"Olena, I'm going out for a walk with someone. Tell Dimitri I'll be right back." I shouted into the house hearing Olena answering 'okay.'

"Aren't you injured?" Maria asked me noticing how I took the steps of the front porch one at a time due to my still bummed knee. "Wait, your face is healed and—"

"They fixed me up in the hospital." I said trying to change the topic. I still wasn't sure how much she knew about spirit. Maria told me she used to be a guardian but I wasn't if she would know about the spirit element. It was still new concept even two years later and I was not in the mood to explain it to her. Plus, she totally bailed on me at the hospital. "What happen to you?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about. I'd talk in a car but I'm looking for somewhere more private and I want to make you comfortable."

"You're not going to rape me are you?" I ask walking over to what I presumed was her car since it was the only vehicle in the driveway other than the one Dimitri used earlier today.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

As Maria walked over to the driver side of the car, I made sure to take in her appearance as I was too hurt to do it last time we met. Maria looked as if she was of Hispanic decent with black hair, brown eyes, and a dark complexion like my own. Before, I'd assumed she was in her early to mid fifties but now I was thinking later fifties maybe early sixties. I could see traces of gray in her pixie styles hair and worry lines and scars covering her face from what I expected were from her guardian days.

While Maria put her seat belt on and prepared to leave, I took a look around her car. Hanging from her mirror were two letters, "MH." So her last named started with an "H" like mine, I pondered to myself.

"Is your hotel far? I don't have a cell phone and I know Dimitri will worry if i'm done too long."

"No. I'm staying at a place called the Peaceful Rest. It's about 20 minutes from Olena's house."

"The Peaceful Rest? You aren't trying to kill me, are you?"

Sighing like my mother does when I try to make unnecessary jokes with her, Maria continued driving without giving me any sort of response.

When we arrived at Maria's hotel, I made note that she was renting the room 205 in case, I needed to know for future reference.

"You said you had limited time to talk so I want to get straight to the point." Maria said as she took a sit on the red push couch with me in the matching recliner adjacent from her.

"I told you before that I used to be a Guardian. I want to tell you my story but I know some parts are not going to make you happy."

"You don't have to sound all melodramatic." I said under my breath. However, by the look Maria shot at me, I knew I wasn't quiet enough for her not to hear.

"When I was around your age, I suffered a terrible injury." Maria started out.

"All I wanted to do was lay in my hospital bed and feel sorry for myself. I was only 25 years old when the incident occurred. I was on a recovery mission—four royal Moroi women were out partying one night at a techno bar without their guardians when they were attacked by two Strigois in small town located in Ohio. Two of the women were instantly killed, their remains left over but the other two were taken. We were sure of it. Since they were each from royal bloodlines obviously it was of top propriety to have them safely returned to their respected families. It took around five days to track the Strigois to a shed off Route 42 a few miles shy of the Nevada border. We were surprised they had gotten so far from Ohio. Understanding that time was of the essence to retrieve them both alive, around 10 guardians were called upon immediately, myself included, to head out for a search and recovery."

Sitting up more alert, I listened to her story intently. I had been on search and rescues before so I am always willing to listen for any advice or in this case how her rescue went so bad.

"We were able to infiltrate the Strigoi base with little trouble. However, we had made the mistake of assuming that only the two Strigois would be there. You must understand, Rose. Back then it was a rarity to even find two Strigois working together. Not like today when you were attack by what, around 30 Strigois?

"40." I responded having remembered the estimate Dimitri gave me last night.

"Well that would have been flat-out impossible back then. Anyways, back to the story. There were 10 Strigois. Still a hefty number but not quite 40. I assume that even back then things were changing. Strigois were banding together."

"We were overwhelmed. There were 5 of us so 10 shouldn't have been that big of a deal but we weren't expecting the traps."

"They had built these booby- traps. They must have expected us to come after the royals. Today, I'm still trying to research where the shift of intelligence happened. It has become my life work to figure out what sparked the change in the Strigois' psychology; When they started to retain their knowledge from their former selves instead of becoming soulless, brainless pawns of what they once were."

"At one point I got separated from the others. I was running from the gun fire when I accidently fell into a hole. I could hear the explosions of gunpowder and the screaming happening above me as I felt helpless being unable to help my friends. I don't remember much else about that day, I feel it is due to the intense panic that was ripping through my body at that time."

"The next day, when everything cleared up and I could hear the Strigois talking about the kills they made. I knew I was the only survivor. I figured if I kept quiet, the Strigoi would depart from this location in search for new victims. I wasn't so lucky. Two Strigois found me in the hole and jumped in. I guess I should be lucky it was two and not all ten." Maria said stopping looking down at the carpet with a look of despair on her face. "Without any sort of weapon and having lost my stake early on in the fighting, I knew I was going to die."

Looking back up at me, she continued, "I didn't die of course. The Strigoi, whose names have been imprinted in my mind forever, were named Henry and Rupert. I won't talk about the torture I went through for the next few days but I will say by the end I was left without the ability to ever bear children or walk. You see, my right leg was ripped off leaving me crippled for life."

"Being 25 years old and not having a leg was unbearable. I felt hopeless. Being a guardian was all I knew. I had never met a one-legged guardian before. I felt as if in a blink of an eye I was left jobless and broken. I had begun to fall into a severe depression. I didn't want to live anymore."

Smiling, Maria explained, "That was when I met her. She was a nurse working at the hospital. Her name was Meredith Hathaway. She was your grandmother. I owe my life to her. She told me that I could get a prosthetic leg and even took the time out of her busy schedule to work with me on physical therapy."

"I met your mother too." Maria continued before I could even process this new information. I was learning about my—grandmother. Janine never talked about her family. Even when I asked, she always made excuses or changed the topic; Just as she did with the topic of my father."

"Meredith held a party for me when I got out of the hospital. I was more than overjoyed." Maria paused breaking eye contact with me and looking off into the distance, "I wasn't close to my family. My mother and sisters were the Dhampir girls you are warned not to be. I knew since the day I could understand what they did for money, I was going to be a guardian." Maria said a sign of pride coming through her face at the last statement.

"I never had friends because I saw them as distractions. I wanted to be the best guardian out there. An inspiration to all little girls. A way to avoid the Dhampir women stereotype."

"I want that too." I said speaking up for the first time since the beginning of the story.

"I know you do, Rose. I could tell the moment I met you. I saw your strength. You were broken, and still you kept going despite all odds against you. You remind me a lot of your grandmother." Maria said smiling at the statement in remembrance.

"Where is my grandmother? My mother—she never talks about her."

"Oh Meredith." Maria exclaimed frowning.

"She's dead isn't she?" I asked but not really wanting to know the answer. From the moment Maria said she knew my grandmother, I silently hoped she was still alive so I could meet her.

"It was an accident." Maria confirmed as my heart felt as though it dropped to the ground in disappointment. "She was crossing the street in front of the hospital when she was hit by a man, who was distracted by his pregnant wife. She was in labor and he was nervous. Took his eyes off the road for only a minute but by then it was too late."

"It was the day of the party she held for me. As I said, I was so overjoyed she had done something for me; a marvelous gift that ended in a terrible day. I remember being at the party your grandmother held for me talking to a nice lady when your grandfather came up to me. I knew from the look on his face something was wrong."

"My grandfather-" I interrupted in shocked. I couldn't believe that in less than an hour I was hearing more about my family then in my 20 years on this earth.

Smiling at my outburst in understanding, Maria continued, "His name is Charles."

"Charles-" I mumbled deciding whether or not the next part of my question would be offensive, "As in, 'he has the same name as your husband."

Taking a deep breath and placing her right hand over her mouth, she answered, "Yes."

Jumping up from the recliner I had been residing this entire time, I started to pace. "So my grandmother dies and you jump into bed with her husband?"

"That isn't how it was, Rose." Maria responded now standing up herself. I hadn't noticed before but I could see her limp as she closed the distance between us. "After Meredith died, Charles cracked with the pressure of raising your mother by himself. At first, I moved in to help him through the stress."

"And into his bed?" I retorted with a snort. "How long was she dead?"

"That is beside the point" Marai stated harshly raising her voice for the first time.

Closing her eyes for a few seconds then opening them she continued without the harshness, "I know how it looks to you." When I didn't respond she added, "It was 4 months later when I—how did you put it, went into his bed.

"You seem like a descent person, other than taking your friend's man." I said sitting down on the couch because my knee was starting to act up again. "Why won't my mother talk about you or—"Pausing to find a word and not quite ready to use the title he deserved, "Charles?"

"I need you to understand why Charles and I went to each other for comfort with each other. He, of course was broken hearted and overwhelmed with Janine, I was banished from ever being a guardian."

Before I could ask Maria about her last statement, she went on, "That's right, there was no place for a girl with one leg. They were concerned I wouldn't be able to defend a Morio or myself for that matter. Brought up ridiculous arguments like, 'What happens if your prosthetic leg falls off?' I was without a job or any kind of support. Charles helped me through this time in my life as much as I helped him."

Coming to sit on the couch beside me, she said, "I fell in love with Charles. I never meant for the person I loved to be my friend's husband."

"I guess I could understand that in a way in a dysfunctional kind of way. So, why does my mom not talk about you?"

"She thought I was stealing her father away. It made sense. Charles pulled away from her. I was more than willing to take the blame then let it be known that Charles was not able to deal with her."

"Deal with her?"

"We put her in a border school. Charles couldn't stand to be around Janine anymore. Said she made him think of Meredith."

"I can imagine why that would be a bother. Charles would look at my mother, think of Meredith and there goes your romantic fantasies."

Glaring at me, Maria retorted, "You're exactly like Janine, jumping to conclusions. I asked Charles to send Janine away because I never wanted her to know that her father couldn't stand the sight of her anymore. You think she dislikes us now, feeling as though she was sent away so we could give our romantic fantasies. I can only imagine who she would have become had the truth been given to her. Maybe like my mother and sisters?"

Taking a quick inhalation of breath, I stood up and pronounced, "I think I'm done talking for today. It's late. "I continued walking to the door.

"We still have much to talk about-" Maria said getting up and walking over to me.

"Why are you telling me all this now?

"I didn't know who you were at first."

"Save it." I answered putting my hand up infront of me while twisting the door knob and opening the door with my other.

Slamming the door shut again, Maria, looking straight in my eyes, whispered, "The Strigois that hurt me are still alive. You want to know why the Strigoi are acting strange. There, is your answer. I have spent years tracking them, looking for any chance at revenge. That's why I was in St. Peterburg."

"Why should I care?"

"You haven't asked me why I'm in Baia."

"I don't care?"

"They're here. I followed them here. You should be careful. They almost killed you once. If they do it again, I may not be there to save you this time—"

"You did not save me the last time." I responded rolling my eyes not afraid of her threats at all. My only concern being Dimitri's family. Could Strigoi come into the community?

"Be careful." Maria said opening the door and holding it out for me.

"Oh and Rose? I would reframe from telling your mother what we talked about."

"Whatever." I responded making my way to the elevator.

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